Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze clinical outcomes from cervical cancer and stratify patients into risk groups for prognostic factors for early-stage disease. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients with stage IB or IIA cervical cancer treated with adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) or concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) following primary surgery at Samsung Medical Center from 2001 to 2011. Adjuvant RT was added for patients with intermediate-risk factors, and adjuvant CCRT was performed on high-risk patients after surgery...

The removal of a large number of foreign bodies in the maxillofacial region can be complicated and challenging. In this case report, a specific strategy for removal of multiple foreign bodies in the maxillofacial region is presented. A girl diagnosed with twenty-four foreign bodies in her left lower face and neck underwent the surgery using a computer-assisted navigation system. A specific strategy was used in this case, which included from one sub-region to the next and from the easiest to the most difficult...

Ovarian endometriomas affect 17 to 44% of women with endometriosis, and are often associated with pelvic pain and infertility. Treatment options include expectant management, medical and/or surgical treatment, and in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET). The choice of treatment depends mostly on the associated symptoms. In most cases, surgery is the preferred choice, since endometriomas do not respond to medical treatment, which may only treat associated pain. In case of infertility, IVF-ET may be a suitable alternative to surgery, particularly when there is no associated pain...

Although increasingly popular as a laboratory species, very little is known about the peripheral auditory system of the naked mole-rat, Heterocephalus glaber. In this study, middle and inner ears of naked mole-rats of a range of ages were examined using micro-computed tomography and dissection. The ears of five other bathyergid species (Bathyergus suillus, Cryptomys hottentotus, Fukomys micklemi, Georychus capensis and Heliophobius argenteocinereus) were examined for comparative purposes. The middle ears of bathyergids show features commonly found in other members of the Ctenohystrica rodent clade, including a fused malleus and incus, a synovial stapedio-vestibular articulation and the loss of the stapedius muscle...

Cytomegaloviruses (CMVs) establish chronic, systemic infections. Peripheral infection spreads via lymph nodes, which are also a focus of host defence. Thus, this is a point at which systemic infection spread might be restricted. Subcapsular sinus macrophages (SSM) captured murine CMV (MCMV) from the afferent lymph and poorly supported its replication. Blocking the type I interferon (IFN-I) receptor (IFNAR) increased MCMV infection of SSM and of the fibroblastic reticular cells (FRC) lining the subcapsular sinus, and accelerated viral spread to the spleen...

Within the first three weeks of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, virus replication peaks in peripheral blood. Despite the critical, causal role of virus replication in determining transmissibility and kinetics of progression to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), there is limited understanding of the conditions required to transform the small localized transmitted founder virus population into a large and heterogeneous systemic infection. Here we show that during the hyperacute "pre-peak" phase of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection in macaques, high levels of microbial DNA transiently translocate into peripheral blood...

Infectious diseases still represent a major challenge for humanity. In this context, their surveillance is critical. From 2010 to 2016, two Point-Of-Care (POC) laboratories have been successfully implemented in the rural Saloum region of Senegal. In parallel, a homemade syndromic surveillance system called EPIMIC was implemented to monitor infectious diseases using data produced by the POC laboratory of the Timone hospital in Marseille, France. The aim of this study is to describe the steps necessary for implementing EPIMIC using data routinely produced by two POC laboratories (POC-L) established in rural Senegal villages...

BACKGROUND: Most biospecimens in the US are collected from non-Hispanic Whites, limiting the generalizability of findings. There is a need to increase participation in biobanking among ethnic and racial minorities. The purpose of this study was to use qualitative methods to identify factors that may influence Mexican-American individuals' willingness to participate in biobanking. METHODS: We conducted 15 focus groups in three Texas cities with Mexican-American individuals, in both Spanish and English...

The neural crest is a transient embryonic population that originates within the central nervous system (CNS) and then migrates into the periphery and differentiates into multiple cell types. The mechanisms that govern neural crest stem-like characteristics and self-renewal ability are poorly understood. Here, we show that the proto-oncogene cMyc is a critical factor in the chick dorsal neural tube, where it regulates the size of the premigratory neural crest stem cell pool. Loss of cMyc dramatically decreases the number of emigrating neural crest cells due to reduced self-renewal capacity, increased cell death, and shorter duration of the emigration process...

Chronic infections affect a third of the world's population and can cause bone marrow suppression, a severe condition that increases mortality from infection. To uncover the basis for infection-associated bone marrow suppression, we conducted repeated infection of WT mice with Mycobacterium avium. After 4-6 months, mice became pancytopenic. Their hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) were severely depleted and displayed interferon gamma (IFN-γ) signaling-dependent defects in self-renewal. There was no evidence of increased HSPC mobilization or apoptosis...

Fungal infections are major causes of morbidity and mortality, especially in immunocompromised individuals. The innate immune system senses fungal pathogens through Syk-coupled C-type lectin receptors (CLRs), which signal through the conserved immune adaptor Card9. Although Card9 is essential for antifungal defense, the mechanisms that couple CLR-proximal events to Card9 control are not well defined. Here, we identify Vav proteins as key activators of the Card9 pathway. Vav1, Vav2, and Vav3 cooperate downstream of Dectin-1, Dectin-2, and Mincle to engage Card9 for NF-κB control and proinflammatory gene transcription...

Ventricular myocytes are excitable cells whose voltage threshold for action potential (AP) excitation is ∼-60 mV at which INa is activated to give rise to a fast upstroke. Therefore, for a short stimulus pulse to elicit an AP, a stronger stimulus is needed if the resting potential lies further away from the INa threshold, such as in hypokalemia. However, for an AP elicited by a long duration stimulus or a diastolic spontaneous calcium release, we observed that the stimulus needed was lower in hypokalemia than in normokalemia in both computer simulations and experiments of rabbit ventricular myocytes...

Electromotility of outer hair cells (OHCs) has been extensively studied with in vitro experiments because of its physiological significance to the cochlear amplifier, which provides the exquisite sensitivity and frequency selectivity of the mammalian ear. However, these studies have been performed largely under load-free conditions or with static load, while these cells function in vivo in a dynamic environment, receiving electrical energy to enhance mechanical oscillation in the inner ear. This gap leaves uncertainties in addressing a key issue, how much mechanical energy an OHC provides...

Biological membranes are normally under a resting transmembrane potential (TMP), which originates from the ionic imbalance between extracellular fluids and cytosols, and serves as electric power storage for cells. In cell electroporation, the ionic imbalance builds up a high TMP, resulting in the poration of cell membranes. However, the relationship between ionic imbalance and TMP is not clearly understood, and little is known about the effect of ionic imbalance on the structure and dynamics of biological membranes...

The aggregation of membrane-bound α-synuclein (αS) into oligomers and/or amyloid fibrils has been suggested to cause membrane damage in in vitro model phospholipid membrane systems and in vivo. In this study, we investigate how αS interactions that precede the formation of well-defined aggregates influence physical membrane properties. Using three truncated variants of αS with different aggregation propensities and comparable phospholipid membrane binding affinities we show, using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and fluorescence anisotropy measurements, that formation of αS clusters on supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) impairs lateral lipid diffusion and increases lipid packing beneath the αS clusters...

The conversion of human lysozyme into amyloid fibrils is associated with a rare but fatal hereditary form of nonneuropathic systemic amyloidosis. The accumulation of large amounts of aggregated protein is thought to be initiated by the formation of transient intermediate species of disease-related lysozyme variants, essentially due to the loss of global cooperativity under physiologically relevant conditions. Interestingly, all five naturally occurring, amyloidogenic, single-point mutations are located in the β-domain of lysozyme, the region that is predominantly unfolded during the formation of the transient intermediate species...

Electrocorticography (ECoG) based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have been proposed as a way to restore and replace motor function or communication in severely paralyzed people. To date, most motor-based BCIs have either focused on the sensorimotor cortex as a whole or on the primary motor cortex (M1) as a source of signals for this purpose. Still, target areas for BCI are not confined to M1, and more brain regions may provide suitable BCI control signals. A logical candidate is the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), which not only shares similar somatotopic organization to M1, but also has been suggested to have a role beyond sensory feedback during movement execution...

Many products of secondary metabolism are activated by quorum sensing (QS), yet even at cell densities sufficient for QS, their production may be repressed under suboptimal growth conditions via mechanisms that still require elucidation. For many beneficial plant-associated bacteria, secondary metabolites such as phenazines are important for their competitive survival and plant-protective activities. Previous work established that phenazine biosynthesis in Pseudomonas chlororaphis 30-84 is regulated by the PhzR/PhzI QS system, which in turn is regulated by transcriptional regulator Pip, two-component system RpeA/RpeB, and stationary-phase/stress sigma factor RpoS...

Background/Aims: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) has been suggested as a reliable imaging technique for monitoring of disease activity in patients with adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD). Therefore, we investigated the clinical significance of 18F-FDG PET/CT in Korean AOSD patients. Methods: Thirteen AOSD patients were included in the study. The PET/CT images were evaluated with visual and semiquantitative method using standardized uptake values (SUVs)...